19 years clover growing in North Dakota

19 Years
Clover Growing
North Dakota

BY

DATUS C. SMITH
2

PRICE 10 CENTS

Published by
CLOVERLEA SEED CO,
BLANCHARD, N. D.

£9. Years
Clover Growing

North Dakota

BY

DATUS C. SMITH

EXPERIENCES
AT
CLOVERLEA FARM

Copyright 1916

Rn ere

ber we

erlea Farm

In Clover at Clov

Clover Growing
At Cloverlea Farm

Cloverlea Farm, at Blanchard, Traill County, North Dakota,
consists of 2,240 acres of medium Red River valley soil, all
arable, save 20 acres. [he farm was established by the writer
in the days of the Territory on the virgin prairie and continues
under the same ownership and management, with such advan-
tage as may come to a farm long operated with definite ideals.

EARLY DAYS

In the beginning Cloverlea Farm (which, by the way, did
not take its name until it had earned it in broad fields of clover)
was devoted entirely to wheat like all other farms of the valley.
Year after year we would plow and sow and reap a crop of
wheat; doubt of a crop there was none in those days. But
crops to be had for the asking are past in North Dakota—the
land can no longer be profitably farmed in the old way.

Harvesting in the Early Days

This was foreseen by many, and strenuous efforts were begun
to get out of ‘‘all wheat,’’ especially when the inevitable era of
low prices for wheat set in. One thing was accepted by all
men at that time, that we were too far north to grow clover. So,
everything else was tried. Some went into sheep and more

6 CLOVER GROWING

into cattle, without adequate preparation in fences, pastures
and hay lands, and then, almost to a man, out again. Others
took to raising hogs, but however profitable hogs may be they
can never afford extensive rotation in the prairie farming of
North Dakota. But the thing that swept the entire older part
of the state was summer fallowing: that was to redeem us from
all our ills; instead, it filled the ditches everywhere with the
precious top soil, already too fine from loss of humus through
continued cropping. Then the summer fallow as a substitute
for real rotation also went by the board.

EXPERIMENTS IN CLOVER

Cloverlea Farm had its fair share in these things, but it was
at the same time striving for something better. With clover —
constantly in mind the writer made visits to the best farming
sections of southern Minnesota and Michigan and to the prin-
cipal clover district of Wisconsin. Visits were also made to
the Experiment Stations of those states. To every man we said
“Will you please tell us about clover>”’

Modest experiments were also begun at Cloverlea in red
clover, alsike and white clover, in alfalfa and even in sweet
clover, 200 pounds of the latter seed being secured from Mis-
sissippi for the trial. Alsike, notwithstanding the Eastern boom-
ing it had at the time, proved too small and needed more water
than it could get. Alfalfa we tried in every way, with a nurse
crop and without, broadcasted and cultivated in drill rows—
but no one told us then of inoculation, and the alfalfa lan-
guished. Sweet clover seemed to fail, doubtless it was simply
because the seeds were too hard to germinate the first year.
But we stuck to red clover and WON.

FINAL SUCCESS

The first field crop was planted in 1897. It consisted of
3.83 acres. As an experiment the results would have been
called meager but for the fact that it did demonstrate that red
clover had actually lived over a severe winter on the open

JUL 3 1916

Bie a 2 oe aed GC OF WoT Rhy Bs Ay 8

Dakota prairie. All our experiments previous to this had been
in more or less protected situations near the buildings.

In 1899 we laid down at Cloverlea a full quarter section to
clover and timothy, mixed half and half by weight. This field
came through the winter badly and the great drought of 1900
finished all the clover, licking up every leaf, but fortunately
leaving us the timothy. That experience gave us serious pause
for a year; but in 1902 we had recovered full breath and were
up again, planting that year 160 acres of clear clover and 320
acres of clover and timothy mixed.

Lest it may seem a thing of the past, it may be mentioned
that in the past season, 1915, we laid down 377 acres in clear
red clover and clover and timothy mixed.

OUR FIRST CLOVER SEED

No attempt was made during the first few years to save seed
at Cloverlea, not only because there was no huller in the country,
but also because the demands for hay and pasturage were then
so urgent. Until 1904 we brought in clover seed from southern
Minnesota and Wisconsin, each lot being specially selected for
us in order to get the cleanest and most vigorous seed obtain-
able. In 1905 Cloverlea Farm got the most modern clover
huller, the first by several years, we believe, to be brought into
the state. Since 1904 we have brought in no clover seed from
the outside. The result has been the gradual development at
Cloverlea of thoroughly acclimated red clover.

METHODS AT CLOVERLEA

There is no system of clover raising in any state to the east
of us that will entirely fit the requirements of North Dakota, as
we have learned through unhappy experiences.

EARLY SEEDING

The earlier the clover crop can be put in the better—this is
the rule at Cloverlea. In some situations very early seeding is

8 Ci EiO) VOETRO Gr RG: WCLIN AG

an absolute necessity on the well-worn wheat soils that are wisely
chosen to be laid down to clover. Everything must be done to
give the young clover plants a good chance. Starting with a
soil somewhat depleted, early seeding is a great help. Of late
years earliest seeding has not been indispensable at Cloverlea
because the soil is now in so much better condition than it was
when we began raising clover.

THE SEED BED

A firm seed bed in the best possible tilth is for clover a prin-
ciple well understood; still, only the wary avoid pitfalls known
to all. The only catch of clover that ever failed us in the spring
was on a piece of fall-plowed land so dry as to be the first
seeded and so mellow that we thought no harrowing beyond
once covering was needed. ‘There was the mistake; the rather
dry summer caught this field, though another seeded the same
spring came through all right.

METHODS OF SEEDING

We went through the whole range of seeders, wheelbarrow
seeders, rake seeders and seeder attachments for grain drills,
seeking to follow the best practice of the eastern states, requiring
very shallow seeding—and there are those who, possibly with-
out experience, still advise that practice for North Dakota.
But at Cloverlea we came in the end to mixing the clover seed
(and clover and timothy) with the seed wheat and running the
seeder disks pretty shallow. This may look like “‘slack farm-
ing,’ —we thought so once—but we have followed it many
years with much satisfaction. The possibility of dry summers
makes rather deep seeding necessary. The mixing should be
done only at the buildings, not in the seeder box. We once tried
mixing the clover seed in the seeder boxes in the field and got
an uneven stand.

SEED PER ACRE
We have gradually increased the amount of seed per acre.

We are now using 10 pounds of clear clover when alone and
5 pounds of clover and 5 pounds of timothy for mixed seeding,

Neb ae five) oe) oak OC ER ONE RE EB Aj

This is an abundance in favorable seasons on a good seed bed
for average North Dakota soils, which are naturally strong,
but on the whole we feel inclined to a somewhat less proportion
of timothy.

NURSE CROPS

We have settled down to a regular seeding of wheat as the
most satisfactory nurse crop for clover in North Dakota. A
heavy crop of oats will surely smother clover. Barley, like all
grains, takes a good deal of water at ripening time, and with
barley that happens sometimes to be the dryest part of the sea-
son. Besides that, barley is generally seeded late and on spring
plowing, both bad for clover.

Rye, a favorite nurse crop in the east, has here the same
objection as barley in robbing the young clover plant of moisture
in midsummer. ‘This may be fully atoned for by the fact that
with rye the clover may get much earlier seeding even on the
yet frozen ground in the spring. ‘There is, however, a reason
often conclusive against rye, and that is the greater need of
clover on some other land than rye stubble.

INOCULATION

We believe thoroughly in inoculation tor alfalfa and some
other crops, but we have found red clover little in need of it at
Cloverlea; we have had excellent crops of clover on fields
never before in clover. The bacteria may be carried in the
seed; quite likely it is already in many soils.

MANURE

It is difficult to map out, or follow, any precise plan for the
use of manures on a North’ Dakota farm, various limitations
interfering to prevent it.

At Cloverlea we have come to believe that the best possible
general use of manure is in connection with clover and grass,
and not on corn ground. In summer, we haul the manure every
day direct from the horse barn to the field with a manure
spreader. We would not put manure on mature clover or

10 CLOW IR GRO Woh G

alfalfa, but as a top dressing for the young clover in the fall
after the nurse crop is off we find it invaluable, and there is
nothing like it for a timothy crop, old or new. Often we cannot
reach the clover and timothy owing to the distances from the
buildings. Whatever manure we have left over goes, as a rule,
in a thin top dressing to nearby pastures, beginning at the fur-
ther side to avoid repeated applications near the gate. This all
relates to fresh horse manure hauled daily from the barn.

In winter, when top dressing can no longer be: done, the fresh
horse manure is, when the weather and roads will permit, hauled
out to distant fields most needing it and piled there to be dis-
tributed later. The well rotted.yard manure, so far as it cannot
be used for top dressing, is spread first on ground that is to go
into alfalfa without a nurse crop, and after that on corn ground,
‘not so much for the benefit of the corn as for the crops to follow,
alfalfa and potatoes at present at Cloverlea.

If you have clover, stock will follow, and that means manure
and crops; and it should not be forgotten that manure from
clover hay is much richer than common manure.

LIME AND COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS

There is as a rule—though there are exceptions—enough
lime in the soil of North Dakota to render it unnecessary, even
for clover, to add lime. So, little attention need be paid the
question of acid soils.

President E. F. Ladd, of the Agricultural College, then
head of Chemistry Department, selected Cloverlea Farm for a
comprehensive test of commercial fertilizers in 1911, 30 acres
being devoted to the experiment. The work was under the
immediate charge of Prof. J. W. Ince. The definite conclu-
sion reached was that, speaking generally, no commercial fer-
tilizer, not even phosphorous, is at present an economic ad-
vantage in the raising of grain in North Dakota.

CLOVER AND WILD OATS

Weeds are no doubt a blessing in disguise, to compel better
farming. In North Dakota at the present time the disguise

UeEeOoOR ChOVER °°) as

reaches its highest perfection in wild oats. Clover is a pretty
good weed killer, smothering many the first spring after the
wheat is off, or catching them in the first cutting of clover.
Clover will not eradicate wild oats, but it will check them hard,
getting every oat that is on or near the surface after the wheat
of the year before.

FAILURES IN CLOVER

With the one exception mentioned, we have not failed at any
time to get a fair catch of clover. Several times, Cloverlea has
had but half a crop of clover, but there has never been a
complete crop failure in any year except in the drought of
1900. Can any clover section in the east show so good a
record? Should not the men of North Dakota take courage
from this >

After clover seed is taken from a field, if the ground is not
plowed in the fall, that field is likely to show the next spring
the most beautiful stand of clover ever seen. Trust her not,
he is fooling thee! She did it twice for us at Cloverlea Farm.
Such a catch clover crop does not make a success, partly, it
may be, because the self-seeding is too thick, but at any rate
the unplowed ground is too hard—clover surely needs a good
bed to lie in.

For lack of a good seed bed, we had another failure. Years
ago we took a poor piece of wheat stubble—we had more of
that kind then than now—disked it well and seeded it late in
the fall to clover. We planned that without a nurse crop it
should do well, but it didn‘t—clover, like little children, must
have a good start in life.

USES OF CLOVER

It seems absurd to tell any farmer of the uses of clover when
he well knows that he could make very good use of it if he
only had it. However, having in mind chiefly the important
part that clover may play in the rotation of North Dakota

12 CLUOV ER -6 RO WING

crops, we think it may be encouraging to some to show what
is done with clover at Cloverlea Farm.

Wise rotation at best has some difficulties in a North Dakota
farm. Any man who tells precisely how he cuts up his Dakota
farm in an undeviating rotation may be safely considered a very
dull person, or imaginative—surprises await him.

Cloverlea Farm is a long way from perfection as to the best
rotation, but has found clover an invaluable aid in that direction.

CLOVER IN THE ROTATION

Starting with the plan of seeding down every year approxi-
mately one-tenth of the farm, we take fields that have had two,
three or four crops of grain (of one kind or another), selecting
the land most needing restoration, judged not only by its appar-
ent condition but also by its record, and seed 80 to 160 acres
in clear red clover and a like acreage in clover and timothy
mixed, always with wheat as the nurse crop.

The clear clover is, the next season, treated strictly as a
one-year crop. First, we take a crop of hay and, when
the promise is good, reserve the second cutting for seed.
After the seed is off, the land is plowed that fall, unless late
season compels its being plowed the next spring—and prosper-
ity is ours in the next two or three grain crops on that land if
there is any such thing as prosperity going at that time.

The clover and timothy fields are treated as two-year crops,
one-half as meadow and the other half as pasture.

The first year of the meadow, we take one crop of mixed
hay, and the second cutting, unless there i: urgent demand for
hay or pasturage, is reserved for clear clover seed, the first
cutting having prevented the timothy from making seed. In the
second year of the meadow, now largely timothy (unless we
took clover seed the year before and left a catch crop of clover)
the hay is taken and that land immediately broken, and later
backset.

The pasture is used from the beginning, but early close
grazing is avoided because we have the old pasture to use until
it is broken up in midsummer; this leaves the new pasture un-

PSs yO wee bE. ov BR 13

grazed till there is substance in the young clover. In the second
year of the pasture (now become the “‘old pasture’) it is grazed
heavily from early in the spring till breaking time, when it is
broken, and later backset, like the meadow that same summer.
It should be mentioned that this second year the pasture, if it
has not been grazed too closely the year before, will be still
pretty well filled with clover which will continue till the sod is
turned under.

This completes the two years of clover and timothy mixed
that we started with; that is, each field has a season and a half
in timothy and clover and a half-season given over to breaking
and backsetting the land. Here is again real sod land, well
stocked with humus and qualified to yield three, four or five
good grain crops, often starting with flax. Flax, in this way.
coming only once in several years on the same land, is found to
be a profitable crop at Cloverlea.

This statement as to rotation of crops looks too machine-
made to suit Cloverlea, where too much or too little moisture,
abundant or lean condition of pastures and other things come
in to bend the best laid plans. However, the scheme is sub-
stantially as stated, with a record of over 200 acres average
annually laid down in clover and clover and timothy during the
_last fifteen years.

A good Hay Crop at Cloverlea

14 CLOVER “CRO Wiwe

PASTURES

The entire farm, save one quarter section, is fenced with 22
miles of sheep-tight cattle fencing, long since paid for by the
grazing afforded by fields that would otherwise have been use-
less in that respect. Having the fences, we get much grazing
from fields not then in pasture, and are thus enabled to pasture
our stock on less land than would be necessary without the
fences. With two small river-bend pastures (47 acres) that
cannot well be worked, 120 acres suffice for grazing 45 head
work horses, 450 sheep and 118 head of cattle.

At Cloverlea we bring pastures into rotation; we should
consider it poor farming indeed to continue land in pasturage
that had become better fitted for grain crops than any other
land of the farm. Oh, yes, we have heard of the evil of break-
ing up permanent pastures in England and Kentucky and else-
where, but we are speaking of grain farms in North Dakota.

SHEEP AND CLOVER

Sheep have been kept steadily at Cloverlea Farm during the
past fourteen years, ever since we began to feel sure of clover.
We carry over about 250 head of high-grade Shropshire ewes
and market each fall about 200 good prairie lambs. The wool
and lambs bring in an average of about $1,300 each year, and
it is the nearest like “‘finding money” of anything that happens
at Cloverlea, partly because the sheep may be shifted from
field to field, delighted with any kind of good food, including

most weeds, though not all. They will roam a piece of summer-

Va Be OO Rs: (Che vik Rk 15

plowing and graze the strips along the fences and prosper, while
they will fatten on the stubbles in the fall. In good sized pas-
tures we run sheep, horses and cattle together when there is
occasion without harm to the sheep.

But a flock of sheep becomes a nuisance of the first magni-
tude to him who is not fairly equipped with feed and fences. It
may be added that there appear to be positive limits to the size
of flock of sheep that may be profitably maintained on a North
Dakota grain farm. It does not seem the best use of land to
carry sheep even in clover pastures longer than is required to
restore those pasture lands to good condition for again raising
grain. Beyond such limits, we are now making our gradual
increase of live stock in cattle rather than in sheep.

FEEDING CLOVER

We feed clover hay to horses without restriction and without
bad results. We have had but one horse with heaves, and that
was many years ago. We should, in fact, have a larger pro-
portion of clear clover hay than we do but for the need of
sowing timothy with the clover to safeguard our hay supply and
pastures against failure through possible loss of the clover.

Since everyone who writes on clover seems to feel called upon
to say something about clover bloat, we will say that we have
never had a case. This is perhaps chiefly because there is now
some clover growing in all our pasture lands.

However, we exercise care in putting stock on clover, invari-
ably seeing to it that they are not hungry when first turned in
and that the pasture is not then wet either from dew, rain or
frost. Stock new to the farm are at the beginning left in the
pasture less than half an hour if the clover is at all heavy; soon
all stock is left on the clover all the time.

CLOVER SEED

Clover seed has been a variable crop with us, but with ma-
turity of the tilled soil and the acclimatization of the seed, it
seems more reliable. But the more important thing contributing

16 CeLAOWV ARAR 2G ARG) WEN AG

to this is no doubt the increase of natural agencies cross-pollinat-
ing red clover. ‘The fertilization of red clover is still an elusive
branch of agricultural science, though pursued by many eminent
men. We are not aware that it has yet been determined what
are the chief agencies that carry the pollen from one red clover
plant to another in North Dakota, but it is*certain that the thing
is done, and it seems reasonable that these agencies should in-
crease as the cultivation of clover increases.

As it is, the clover seed crop has proved a valuable one at
Cloverlea. The clover seed market is very broad and one of
the most stable of all American farm markets. We therefore
urge our fellow farmers of North Dakota to raise medium red
clover seed, always in connection with live stock to use the hay
and pasturage.

OTHER THINGS IN THE CLOVER SCHEME

Having at last learned how to raise alfalfa, through inocula-
tion, its one lack with us, that crop is now a small but growing
part of the scheme at Cloverlea—not in rotation, but as an un-
failing resource in dry times, and good at all times.

Silage is also used as a valuable supplement to clover hay in
winter feeding. We would not be without it, but it cannot com-
pete on even terms with clover hay in present day North Dakota
farming. For one thing, the hay
is put up so cheaply and in such
excellent condition with modern
stacking machines— we put up
135 acres of heavy red clover
_ hay last season with two machines
and six bull rakes in three days—
while cutting cor and refilling
the silo is not so very cheap a
process in threshing time, when
it must be done. ‘Then, com
cannot on the average North
Dakota farm afford the large
measure of rotation that we must
have if we are to prosper.

SOG ST a ONS Ly

We are beginning this year to plant sweet clover and believe
it has a good place in North Dakota agriculture.

SUGGESTIONS

It has been the aim of these few pages not to instruct, but to
persuade—-not to provide a complete manual of clover growing,
but to convince farmers of its abundant success in North Dakota.
But a word or two of suggestion may be added

AS TO SOIL.—It may be said, in a general way, that
any good corn soil should be good for clover and that clover
can well stand a soil somewhat heavier than that.

HIGH STUBBLE.—At harvest time it is well to leave a
high stubble over the young clover, though that is not now con-
sidered very important at Cloverlea; we used to leave the highest
possible stubble.

REMOVING THE GRAIN SHOCKS from the field
of young clover is unnecessary; do not go to that expense. The
shocks, it is true, will generally kill the young clover under them
by the time the grain is ready to be stacked or threshed, but that
Is not serious; the clover crowds in and covers the spots pretty well
so that by the second cutting the next year they cannot be even
found. Anyway, it would be far cheaper, when the rush of
harvesting and threshing is over, to sprinkle a little clover seed
where each shock has stood.

POOR LAND.—If we had a field in too poor con-
dition, through long cropping, to raise another crop of spring
grain (as we once had, but have not now), we should, if there
was time, seed it to rye and timothy and add clover seed the
next spring, before the ground is soft, if possible; or else plow
and harrow well in the fall and lay it down in clear clover, or
clover and timothy, early in the spring (on the frozen ground
when practicable) and without a nurse crop.

18 CLO DR GRO Wad G

MEDIUM RED CLOVER is the thing. Alsike requires
too much water and mammoth clover has no place ordinarily in
North Dakota. Mammoth clover is good for plowing under,
but there are few fields in North Dakota where plowing under
clover will or should be practiced.

A BUNCHER attached to a five-foot mower makes an
excellent tool for gathering the seed clover. The cut clover may
be threshed from the field as it lies if the huller can be had
within a reasonable time, or else should be stacked and topped
out with long grass reserved and cut for the purpose, or with
long hay.

DO NOT BURN CLOVER STRAW-—tt is too val-
uable as manure. Some may be fed, depending on its condition;
it may be used for bedding or spread in the yards to make the
best of manures, or spread on the fields direct.

OLD PASTURES.—Why continue old pastures? Why
not trade off, with yourself, a weary piece of wheat stubble
that so much needs rest and get a rich piece of pasture sod to
put into grain? Do you know, you can trade even and get a
good fence around the land besides? Figure it out: Eight
grain crops on a piece of land vs. three crops of grain, one year
in hay (or hay and clover seed), one in pasture and then three
crops of grain again.

SWEET CLOVER.—If we may believe one-half of what
is now said in its favor, every farmer in North Dakota should
make some trial of sweet clover.

PLANT WILLOWS.—Every prairie farmer of sound
mind and with hope in his heart plants trees, of course, but
there are many in North Dakota who have not yet come to a
full appreciation of the value of the willow; we were slow in
learning it at Cloverlea. ae

By planting willows there is assured an unfailing supply of
fence posts without cost, thereby. greatly forwarding the clover
scheme.

LO ORR Tr Nia) 9) POR WA RD 19

The willow makes a good windbreak; it shows the first
touch of color in the spring, but its surpassing merit lies in the
fact that when cut in the dormant stage it will not die, but will
bear heavier than before. Twelve years ago we cut 500 poles
from the grove for the roof of a straw shed for sheep, and now
the stumps that were then left have given us 500 good fence
posts and have begun their mission of growing more posts, inci-
dentally furnishing much firewood. We have bought no fie-
wood for twelve years.

If you haven’t a good grove of willows, stop seeding for a
few hours, if necessary, next spring and plant some willow
trees—no grain planting that you can do will give you such big
returns.

RECORDS.—-Every farmer should keep yearly records of
the farm operations. There is both value and much satisfaction
in them, but they should be very simple. Elaborate records are
not worth the time put into them and in the end are likely to
wholly discourage the man who makes them.

A map, or sketch, each year, showing the different crops,
with a brief note or two on each space as to time of seeding,
acreage, yield and kind of plowing has real value, especially
with clover and greater rotation of crops. Cloverlea has kept
such record-maps for twenty-five years and considers the few
hours a year devoted to making them the best invested time of
the year’s work. We color our maps with school crayons, the
wheat yellow, all grass and clover green, etc., the more readily
to catch the eye. It takes but a few minutes and is worth
while.

LOOKING FORWARD

Who seeds timothy alone in North Dakota? Most farmers.
Why not add clover? If it is a matter of the cost of the seed,
greater returns may be had by putting a part of the money into
clover instead of all timothy; the acreage may be reduced and
produce the same amount of hay while the clover will materially
enrich the land even after the top is removed for hay and pas-

20 OLAOIv SER GRO WT

turage. Why bury seed wheat by the ton so cheerfully every
spring in the doubtful hope of reward, when clover seed put in
with the timothy gives surer promise with small outlay? Try
at least 2 or 3 pounds of clover in every acre laid down to
timothy. That will do for a start; but better still, put in a full
5 pounds and take courage.

Cloverlea Farm puts in 25 bushels or so of red clover seed
every year, not for the fun of it, but because it pays. You may
say: ‘Oh, yes, but they raise their own seed and don’t need to
buy it.” True, but think of this: Clover seed is gold, whoever
has it, and there has never been a bushel of clover seed put in
by Cloverlea Farm that could not have been sold by the farm
at the very price you would need to have paid for clover seed.
Come, plant some clover; get the habit and stop worrying about
hay and pastures.

AN IDEAL FOR NORTH DAKOTA
Would you see the Red River Valley and all fairly heavy

lands of the state blossom as the rose and bring to their people
a prosperity as yet unknown? ‘Then let every farm contribute
its share, and get its share, by laying down every year one-tenth
of its area to new red clover or clover and timothy.

UENO Sah a 0 OS Oe aes ct Oe en an @ Be 21

CLOVERLEA SEED CO.

This company carries on the seed business formerly done by Cloverlea
Farm and has the same management as the farm.

HARDY CLOVER SEED

The need of hardy plants is shown in the half-crop that sometimes
carries through our severe winters. Beyond a doubt, it is only the hardiest
plants that survive. By planting in succession the seeds from these hardiest
plants, as has been the natural course at Cloverlea for eleven years on the
open prairie, the type becomes fixed, as could not be the case with seed
replenished from milder climates and more protected situations. The North
Dakota Agricultural College has shown its belief in the importance of
clover seed bred up to hardiness in North Dakota by taking one year 15
bushels of red clover seed raised at Cloverlea Farm for distribution
throughout the state.

NORTH DAKOTA CLOVER SEED

Such North Dakota clover seed as finds its way to market is classed by
seedsmen as the highest grade that is grown. Engendered by the cold
climate and strong new soil where “clover sickness’ of the soil has never
been known, it has size, weight and vigor unsurpassed by any clover seed
grown in America. Clover seed grown in warmer climates is often mixed with
that grown in colder climate to make it marketable. Why not get all cold
climate seed >

WHAT WE SELL

Though we sell such field grain seeds as are common to North Dakota
farming, our principal business is the selling of medium red clover seed.
Our supply is, first, that raised at Cloverlea Farm which bears the name
“Cloverlea” in the brand. After that we sell of red clover none other
than North Dakota seed. Most of this will still be from Traill County,
N. D., seed that largely has its origin in seed grown on Cloverlea Farm.
For the selection of the Traill County seed, we have unusual facilities
since Cloverlea Farm hulls most ot the clover grown in the county.

22 CL O.V 45 Ree He 8 CS Ea ae eo

GUARANTY

We put out under the “Good Luck” brand only our highest grade of
seed. Owing to variation in soil conditions and vicissitudes of crops we
cannot assume responsibility after the seed is planted. However, any of our
clover seed that is unsatisfactory may at once be returned to us and we will
refund the full amount paid for it together with the freight paid by the buyer ;
further, we will, on application, grant twelve days in which an official inspection
of the seed may be made.

TERMS AND REFERENCES
Cash is invariably required with orders, or shipments will be made
accompanied by bank draft in the usual way.

Reference is had by permission to the following:

Merchants National Bank of St. Paul, Minn., where Cloverlea Farm
has had its account for 25 years.

Blanchard Mercantile Company, Blanchard, N. D.

The Postmaster at Blanchard, N. D.

Also see Dun’s or Bradstreet’s. Ask any banker.

CLOVERLEA SEED COMPANY,

Biancuarp, N.D.

Cart Hivstap,
Managers.

GeorceE Hixsrap,

NORTH DAKOTA
GLOVER SEED